Harry Potter and the Ghost of Cleopatra
by Lady Nilamarthiel
Summary: Harry finds that he -- once again -- is in Snape's office after getting "a simple sleeping draught destroyed beyond recognition." He decides to scheme while he's out of the room. However, this proves to add one more question to his mind. R&R, please!


Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and to Warner Bros. We own none of the characters and/or settings other than the random students that  
just pop up. (Erin imitates a pop-up book. Susan shakes her head in  
dismay.) Oh, and we do own a particular student. We won't tell you who.  
(Both snicker.) And a particular ingredient belongs to Remus Lupin.  
  
Extra note: *Denotes Harry's thoughts*  
  
Harry Potter and The Ghost of Cleopatra  
~Year Six~  
  
Chapter One:  
Detention  
  
Harry Potter was feeling absolutely awful, despite the fact that it was a perfectly clear night, the full moon shining, and there were no clouds in the sky. Not that you could tell in Professor Snape's dungeon, of course, because when in that cold, dark, windowless place, you couldn't even tell if the world was on fire. What dampened Harry's spirits even more was that he, yet again, got his potion wrong. First of all, Snape's office was the last place he wanted to be. He didn't really fancy the idea of staring at pickled pigs brains and chopped toad toenails. Yet there he was, being told off by Snape. In the back of his mind, Harry wondered if Snape would ever  
stop raving on and just shut up! But no, he kept rambling on about how  
Harry was a stupid git like his father.  
  
"Didn't I tell you to add the snake fangs BEFORE the crocodile scales?! And  
to chop the pickled troll spleen into EIGHTEENTHS, not EIGHTHS?!" Snape  
shouted at Harry over his desk, spit flying from his mouth in total  
unbridled rage, "You are just like your father and his idiot friends.  
Always talking in class and wrecking havoc everywhere you go instead of  
paying attention."  
  
Harry gave his head a little shake as if there was hair in his eyes. "Sorry, were you just talking," he asked in an almost-taunting voice, "I  
didn't hear you." Snape's lip curled into a sneer and sat back into his seat. "I believe I just proved my point," he said, quietly and dangerously,  
"Fifty points from Gryffindor."  
  
Harry's eyes widened in horror at the statement. "WHY?! It was only one potion!" The potions master smirked, eyes glittering maliciously. " Twenty-  
five points for getting the potion wrong, twenty points for being sarcastic, and five points just because I don't like you," he explained, "And since it was such an easy potion, Potter, you will write me an essay  
on how the potion is made, four scrolls, in perfect detail."  
  
Harry opened his mouth to retort, but then he heard a loud bang, the shattering of glass, and various curses being shouted. Snape's head snapped  
up in alarm. "What the devil...?!" he exclaimed as he got up from his chair. "Don't you dare move," he hissed at Harry as he left the room and slammed the door behind him, and Harry glared after him. "Bloody bastard," he muttered angrily. He hated that man more than anyone would ever know.  
  
He looked around the room and read the labels of all of Snape's  
ingredients. *Phoenix feather...undiluted bubotuber pus....powdered wormwood...good lord, werewolf feces...unicorn hair...dragon bile...wait a  
minute, dragon bile?* Harry remembered from the previous semester that dragon bile could burn through anything without an anti-burning charm. *I don't reckon that he'd put an anti-burning charm on his desk.* He got up as  
quickly and quietly as possible and crossed over to the glass cabinet behind Snape's desk and took the bile off the shelf and walked lightly over  
to the professor's desk.  
  
Harry stared at the small bottle in his hand, watching the vile green  
liquid slosh around in its container. He hesitated a moment, gingerly  
pulled out the stopper and spilled it on the desk. Instantaneously, the spots where the bile touched the surface started to burn and dissolve until it had a rather large hole in the middle. He grinned happily as it sizzled. *Oops....* But on the floor, there was an upside-down photograph with the edges singed off. He stared at it for a little while, and slowly bent down  
to pick it up.  
  
He was quite shocked when he saw the front of the photo. There was Snape-A Snape in his early teenage years-sitting on a green and silver couch in a room with a roaring fire in the background...and a girl, which looked at  
least a year older than him, sitting with her arms around him and was sporting a unsubtle smile. Her dark, mysterious eyes were glowing and full of amusement. Her short, dark-brown hair was cut into a boyish style with long bangs reaching down to her chin. She winked at Harry as she playfully tugged on the young Snape's hair. Snape winced slightly and batted her hand away. There seemed to be some resemblance between them (*But what is it?*).  
  
Even the teenage Snape looked rather pleased as he wrapped his arms around the girl's waist, and the girl sighed and rested her head on his shoulder.  
A small smile played on his lips, and his eyes glittered, but not with  
malice. More like... tenderness...and love. Snape kissed her temple, causing his hair to cast a curtain over his dark eyes. It wasn't even quite as greasy. In fact, it was a fine, shiny black color, flowing down to his shoulders. Unlike today's Snape, it was neither limp nor matted. Taken care of, in other words. Harry stared at the photograph, transfixed and gaping.  
*Wow.* Harry never imagined Snape being with anyone, let alone a girl.  
  
Suddenly, he heard a slam of a door and loud footsteps. *Bugger, bugger, bugger...oh, bloody hell....* Harry quickly took the papers at the edge of  
the desk and placed them on the hole, hiding the damage. He suddenly remembered something he still had in his robes. *Veritaserum.* When he was  
buying his books in Diagon Alley, Harry bought the potion at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes-the prank shop owned by Fred and George Weasley. 'Use this  
carefully,' they had said, 'we don't want you to get in trouble. Not  
particularly strong, that. Five drops only last about an hour.'  
  
Looking around frantically, he spotted a golden goblet with silver snakes  
slithering around its lip and down the side, its emerald-encrusted eyes glittering softly in the candlelight. *That must be Snape's.* Next to that was another goblet, pure silver with opal raven talons at the base, which were clenching together and relaxing again. And, next to that, was a pure  
rose-colored crystal goblet with a golden lip and base lining.  
*Rather...well...girly, to tell the truth.* Harry quickly put the whole vial of Veritaserum in one of the goblets. (He didn't remember which one).  
  
He quickly shoved the picture he was holding into his pocket. Just in time,  
he sat down as Snape burst in, then turned around furiously. A little eleven-year-old girl from Ravenclaw was silently following in the wake of his shadow. Angry tears were streaming from her bright blue eyes and down her face as she looked at the wall behind Snape. Harry knew how it felt to  
have the meanest teacher in all of Hogwarts history glaring at you with  
loathing in his eyes.  
  
"Well?" Snape demanded. "What were you doing outside my classroom after hours without permission?!" Harry couldn't help but notice how different picture-Snape was from the present-day Snape. His yellowed teeth were bared in a snarl of contempt and his eyes were narrowed in extreme dislike. It  
was frightening how he had changed.  
  
The little blonde first-year hesitated slightly, and began to speak in a tiny, wavering voice, "I-I for-forgot my...." She looked down at her feet  
in distress. Snape waited as patiently as possible, standing alarmingly still. "Yes, Miss Wyatt?" He challenged, his voice quiet, silky, calm, and above all, dangerous. Abruptly, her head snapped up. The tears had stopped.  
It was quite literally like someone turned off a leaky faucet.  
  
"I...I forgot my potions homework, Professor." She finished, rather  
frostily. Snape sneered at her and crossed over, leaving only sixteen inches of space between them. He looked down his nose at her; lip curling even more in cruel amusement. The schoolgirl did something Harry did NOT  
expect--she looked his straight in the eye. She didn't even blink once.  
  
"My, my, what a moody individual we have here." Snape said scathingly. "Doesn't even respect their elders." This time, it was the Ravenclaw girl  
that gave a contemptuous remark. "Elder, indeed."  
  
~~To Be Continued...maybe~~  
  
A/N: Yes, yes, I know, weak ending. Deal with it. I'll continue. Maybe. I have the entire story in my head, but IT WON'T COME OUT!!! NYAH!! Oh, and  
Susan wants to say something.  
  
CA/N: Hello! I must say I did a good job with the few important parts I added in. I gave Erin the idea for using her little sister as the Ravenclaw  
kid. 


End file.
